Uncomfortable York tour - city centre
Uncomfortable York is offering a discounted tour of York on Monday, 15th Dec 10 am, for TAG conference attendees.
Join this Unconventional York tour to go beyond the conventional stories of the city, hearing about the impact of women, people of colour, and LGBTQIA+ individuals from York's past. This tour invites attendees to see beyond the stone facades and uncover the lesser-known narratives of the city. Walking through the beautiful centre of York, you will discuss its early settlement, medieval expansion and deep industrial heritage. This tour, written by academic historians and delivered by researchers from the University of York, asks questions that provoke new ways of seeing the urban landscape and its history, encouraging attendees to see York as more than a charming English city, and instead as a vibrant and global urban centre.
A booking page for this event is accessible via this link.
Attendees can use the discount code TAGYork2025 at checkout, which has been created specifically for TAG conference delegates.
Please direct questions to: info@uncomfortableyork.com
World Building Session
Due to scheduling difficulties, the Worldbuilding session has been moved to 15 December, 9-12am in the Rehearsal Room.
To participate, please sign up at the following link: https://forms.gle/Ap3fMDJYsztHuedF6
Please direct questions to Colleen.Morgan@york.ac.uk
Tour of York Cold War Nuclear Bunker
English Heritage is offering a tour on Tuesday, 16th December at 10:30am. Cost will be £8.10 per person. The York Cold War Nuclear Bunker is located at Monument Cl, Holgate, York YO24 4HT (please note this is some distance from the conference venue).
If you would like to attend, please RSVP using this form by Tuesday 9 December.
Please direct questions to Lily.Green@york.ac.uk
SPMA Geoff Egan Memorial Lecture
An Archaeology of Radical Tenderness
Beatriz Marin-Aguilera
Time: after sessions and before the annual party (~6-7pm)
Where: York Medical Society
Register here!
Archaeology as a discipline is at an ethical crossroad. Claims to be neutral and to depoliticise our practice – or to defend the status of archaeology as an ‘objective science’ – have alarmingly (re)gained traction. This turn away from humans (past and present), their suffering, and the ethics of care is the product of unaddressed postcolonial demands that hide our privileged position as (white) archaeologists.
Drawing on a long tradition of the social in Latin American arts and scholarship, I propose an ‘archaeology of radical tenderness’ that combines protest and profound critical thought with deep care, affection, and vulnerability, especially in the face of systemic harm and oppressive political structures. Using the archaeological record and the living experience, the archaeology of radical tenderness challenges inherited power structures and colonial histories offering new alternatives for our discipline as a site of openness, resistance, and relatedness. The archaeology of radical tenderness advocates for an embodied-situated practice and a critical and loving approach to social justice, emphasising collective care, the transformation of communities through shared vulnerability, and the healing needed to birth new (more equal) futures.
A drinks reception will follow the lecture, provided by the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology.
Annual Party
This year’s TAG party (alongside the Antiquity Quiz) will take place on Tuesday 16 December at the Crescent Community Venue, close to Blossom Street in the centre of York and very close to the Railway Station. The Crescent is a popular community space and live music venue. The party will run from ~9.00 pm (immediately after the Quiz) until 12 midnight, in accordance with the venue’s licence. The party will be DJ’d by our very own Unofficial Hippocampus aka Professor John Schofield. John welcomes requests in advance. These can be sent to John directly via email or through his social media channels @hippocampusdj.
Provision has also been made for anyone wanting an after-party, at the nearby Artful Dodger bar on Micklegate (a 10 min walk downhill from The Crescent). The Artful Dodger will remain open until 2 am. The vibe here revolves around a happy combination of emo, drone, metal and goth.
